Aaron Zahn’s legal team says the JEA Investigation report consists of “improper legal conduct”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The legal team of the Aaron Zahn, the former JEA CEO, sent a letter to the Mayor’s Office and City Council stating that the JEA Investigatory Report published Monday had several issues.

The letter from Zahn’s legal team focused on two main points: the testimonies used were gathered unlawfully and through coercion, and the investigatory committee acted with “willful blindness” by not recognizing the conflict of interest of the Office of General Counsel.

They state that several JEA employees were coerced when giving their statements.

”JEA threatened each of them with being fired for cause and in so doing, the loss of 20 weeks of severance to which each of them would have been entitled,” Zahn’s legal team stated.

They cite an interview with the former JEA Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer Jonathan Kendrick. The interview was to see whether or not Kendrick would be fired from JEA with or without cause following Paul McElroy cleaning house in early June. The interview was done by the Office of General Counsel. Kendrick’s lawyer, Alan Rosner, says that Kendrick was forced to do the interview.

“He’s giving his statements under duress in an attempt that, if he fails to cooperate with the investigation, fails to answer the questions, his employment -- he would be fired with cause and, therefore, he faces a severe sanction as a result of him not cooperating or not answering the questions. So just to be clear and to highlight what I understand of the Garrity warning, is that Mr. Kendrick is being required to answer these questions, and he’s doing so under duress and under the threat of termination with cause,” Rosner said at the beginning of the June 29, 2020 interview.

Lee Wedekind, a lawyer representing the City, argued during the interview, saying that it wasn’t in duress.

“I think that he is here, and if he failed to cooperate, then he would be terminated for cause, and so there is that sanction that would be that he would be subject to for failure to cooperate. But this we’re just sitting around a table right now. So other than your comment about duress, I get it,” Wedekind said.

Zahn’s legal team said they had an issue with these interviews with the former Senior Leadership Team being used for the investigatory report.

“The interviews of JEA employees were not for personnel matters as JEA represented to its employees – if so, why were they attended by SIC counsel and OGC counsel? Rather, contrary to the false representation they were clearly meant to buttress the SIC’s investigation and JEA’s suit against Zahn,” the letter stated.

John Mullen, the personal lawyer for Zahn, told WOKV that they also have an issue with the interviews of public relations consultant Michael Munz, Joey Grieve, and Paul McElroy. Mullen said that these interviews took place after the Special Counsel to the Committee, Steve Busey, told the media that “he knew the story of what happened.”

“Unsurprisingly, these interviews attempt to corroborate the ‘JEA scandal theme’ publicly broadcast by Steve Busey,” Mullen said in his email to WOKV.

The other issue they had was the role of the OGC.

“For some inappropriate reason, the interviews most often included JEA’s outside counsel Nelson Mullins even though the SIC’s very charge was to conduct an “independent” review by City Council of JEA,” the letter stated.

The letter states that because several people on the OGC team were part of the drafting of the performance unit plan, the report was not truly independent.

“Without question, Mr. Gabriel and OGC Counsel played an integral role in developing, reviewing, supervising outside counsel and providing advice to the JEA Board and Zahn on all matters related to the ITN and the PUP. In fact, Mr. Gabriel has appeared at one time or other as if he was an adviser to the ITN process, lawyer for developing the PUP, advisor to those at JEA involved in the ITN and PUP -– and now advisor to the SIC investigating same,” the letter stated.

WOKV reached out to General Counsel Jason Gabriel about this statement. He told us he has not read the letter, but does say that the report was done not by OGC, but by the outside counsel through Smith Hulsey & Busey.

“The SIC Report was drafted and prepared by special private outside counsel (Smith Hulsey & Busey) which was operating at the express direction of City Council, not OGC,” Gabriel said in his email.

Council President Tommy Hazouri also did not have a chance to read the document at the time of WOKV reaching out to him, but he says that he trusts in the report.

“I expect denial, but also I like the truth. And I thought that Steve Busey did an excellent job in moving forward with this thing,” Hazouri said. “And it’s good reading. But more importantly is you’ve got a good capsule of everything that happened.”

Zahn’s legal team did note that they will provide more documents at a later time that would detail more issues they had with the report.

Mayor Lenny Curry released a statement earlier this week saying that he wanted to move on from the report.

“I expect the report to make claims stated as facts that aren’t based on facts, based on what we’ve seen over the last year, the way they’ve released their interviews. And I’m not going to react to that,” Curry said. “You guys have had access to me throughout all of the discussions of any issue we face, facing the city of Jacksonville, particularly this issue over the last couple of years. And I’ve answered those questions with great clarity. Take their report, do what you think is right with it.”

Nikki Kimbleton, the Director of Public Affairs for Curry’s Administration, gave the following statement to WOKV about the report:

“This report captures what Mr. Busey has already released and what has already been reported by local media over the course of several months. Conjecture, opinion, and unfounded speculation at the price tag to taxpayers of $1.8 million.”

Several recommendations from the report are being considered for City Council legislation in the Rules Committee. There is also a criminal investigation being done by the Department of Justice looking into the failed sale and the creation of the performance unit plan.

Cox Media Group